The Top 40

"Fifteenths?"

Typically, Americans who actually pay income tax feel blessed when the net federal tax amount is a TENTH of their gross income. I think I'd rather live under "Richard Crookback's" rule then an American one, especially now that we know Richard was no crueler than was common for his time.

The tax rant itself, ignoring Richard III, is valid.

However, to vent about something that drives me crazy: Sitr Thomas More ascribing deep evil to Richard III was a lie. Sir Thomas More's Mentor, John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, was a man who loathed Richard III, and Sir Thomas More served Henry VIII, whose father, Henry VII, needed to make the man he killed in battle, Richard III, into a monster. Sir Thomas More wrote lies he had heard, about a man, Richard III, who had been killed in battle when More was a small child.

(As a child of 12), Thomas More “spent the years 1490 to 1492 as a page in the household service of John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More)

Heavy irony: there is a very famous way to force people to pay taxes, named “Morton’s Fork” after Sir Thomas More’s mentor: “John Morton (c. 1420-1500), archbishop of Canterbury, who was tax collector for the English King Henry VII. To him is attributed Morton's fork, a neat argument for collecting taxes from everyone: those living in luxury obviously had money to spare and those living frugally must have accumulated savings to be able to pay.” (http://wordsmith.org/words/mortons_fork.html)

Just for the record, as it is explained in ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England), Richard as King did some good things. Among other things in his legacy from his 2-year reign:

“In December 1483, Richard instituted what later became known as the Court of Requests, a court to which poor people who could not afford legal representation could apply for their grievances to be heard. He also introduced bail in January 1484, to protect suspected felons from imprisonment before trial and to protect their property from seizure during that time. He founded the College of Arms in 1484, he banned restrictions on the printing and sale of books, and he ordered the translation of the written Laws and Statutes from the traditional French into English.”

Bail, representation for the poor, basic freedom of the press, the translation of laws into the common vernacular—pretty good for a king who only reigned for 2 years.